Chandigarh: Union territory seeks developmental plan of recently merged 13 villages

CHANDIGARH: As the Chandigarh municipal corporation(MC) has taken over 13 villages, which were recently merged with the civic body, the UT(Union territory) administration has sought report on the proposed developmental plan of these recently merged villages from the MC.
Earlier, these villages were under the direct control of UT’s panchayati raj department, but now after the merger these villages come under the MC.
A senior MC official said that they have already started door-to-door garbage collection system in some of the villages. Besides, they have also planned to improve infrastructure of these villages by making repairing roads, schools, health centres etc. They will share these details with the administration soon, he added.
The UT administration had recently issued a notification that the area outside the aabadi area of recently merged 13 villages, will continue to be controlled by the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952, as applicable to union territory of Chandigarh.
The administration had appointed municipal commissioner K K Yadav as prescribed authority for the development of the UT’s newest 13 villages until the villagers elect own representatives. Of Chandigarh’s 22 villages, nine are within the MC limits. The 13 added to this zone are within 8-kilometre radius of the city and home to more than 50,000 people.
The merger started in 2013 for uniform development and governance of the villages. The administration considered 600 objections and suggestions on the draft notification before a high-powered committee led by UT home secretary Arun Kumar Gupta recommended the merger on November 30 last year.
The Congress party was against the UT's move to merge these villages under the MC. Congress leaders including former union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, former city mayor Subhash Chawla had also filed their objections to the Chandigarh administration. Both leaders had termed the move as arbitrary and one taken without the consultation with the stakeholders. They had also submitted that the move will abolish the entire rural area of the city.
On the other side, local BJP leadership was in favour of merger of these villages. The BJP leaders had even met former Union home minister Rajnath Singh and other senior ministers in Delhi to push for the merger of villages.